04.28.10
Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Ubuntu at 2:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Reminder for the unaware that Docky, which can easily be substituted with another dock, brings with it a whole stack of problems
Docky is a close relative of GNOME-Do (they are being decoupled), which is of course based on Mono. We thought it would be worthwhile pointing this out because a lot of people are unaware of the issue. To quote from a new thread in a Ubuntu site (GNOME-Do is developed by a Canonical employee by the way):
“what is this “class=/usr/lib/docky/’Docky.exe’”? exe file in linux 
why ?”
In reply:
“That is called Mono. Mono program also use .dll for their library files. Awful, isn’t it ?”
We strongly discourage the use of Mono and so does Apple on the face of it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] (not to mention the FSF). This new article from the Guardian mentions Apple’s exclusion of MonoTouch. █
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04.23.10
Posted in Apple, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, Ubuntu at 5:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Picture from guest poster [1, 2]
Summary: A look at the latest news about Mono/Moonlight and what we can learned from the pertinent observations and facts
IS Mono “best of breed” or just a suppressor of productivity? According to this one developer, development with Python and Django has proven to be twice as fast as development with C# and ASP.NET. To quote: [via]
Given equal-sized teams, Django allowed our developers to be twice as productive as our ASP.NET team.
We are always aware of Novell’s attempt to push its Mono-based media player (Banshee) into distributions like Ubuntu and we wrote about it last week. Those who usher Banshee should be aware that only Novell customers are eligible for use of the program because of Microsoft's limitations with software patents.
“Those who usher Banshee should be aware that only Novell customers are eligible for use of the program because of Microsoft’s limitations with software patents.”Novell also promotes MonoTouch for hypePhone and hypePad, even though Apple is blocking it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. There might be loopholes, but they won’t last forever based on how Apple intercepts access to hypeTunes, for example.
The Examiner has more to say regarding the MonoTouch situation and David Worthington, a booster of Microsoft and by association of Mono [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], has contacted Microsoft’s MVP (Miguel de Icaza) to produce an article/post that defends Microsoft/Mono in the face of Apple (he included a photo of a rotten apple).
History shows us that Apple will do what it wants regardless of what anyone says, but Novell’s case has technical merit. For that matter, Adobe might too. I don’t know much about how its Flash-to-iPhone cross compiler works. My takeaway is that Apple should be flexible with Novell, and at least let it make its case.
Of course it’s his position. He has been bolstering Microsoft’s and Novell’s position for well over a year, without exceptions. He even visited the companies and had lunch with them while they fed him with ‘scoops’ and connected him with their analysts who lied to him for publication purposes. To show another example from the news, watch how Moonlight is being promoted by known Microsoft boosters like Marius Oiaga, not by GNU/Linux Web sites.
How long should it take anyone to realise that promotion of Mono and Moonlight comes from the very same people who promote Microsoft? What does that say about Mono and Moonlight? █
“Every line of code that is written to our standards is a small victory; every line of code that is written to any other standard, is a small defeat.”
–James Plamondon, Microsoft Technical Evangelist. From Exhibit 3096; Comes v. Microsoft litigation [PDF]
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04.20.10
Posted in Google, Microsoft, Search, Ubuntu at 10:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft’s Blake Irving becomes the chief technology officer of Yahoo! (latest among several Microsoft proponents who run the ‘new’ Yahoo!)
WHENEVER people depart from Microsoft they may actually become more of a problem than when they were inside Microsoft. The Microsoft influence grows wings and moves on to other companies, sometimes competitors.
It’s a good thing that Canonical abandoned Yahoo! right before the release of Ubuntu 10.04. As we have shown in recent weeks, Yahoo! is fast becoming just a department of Microsoft [1, 2, 3], having been hijacked through proxy agents like Carl Icahn.
The latest news is that Microsoft’s Blake Irving, whom we named as a rumoured candidate for a top position at Yahoo!, is now confirmed to be in. He will become Yahoo’s chief technology officer.
As it promised, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has moved very quickly to replace CTO and EVP of products Ari Balogh, who said earlier this month that he was leaving for “personal reasons.” The company says Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) veteran Blake Irving will be its new chief product officer. Irving had been a long-time executive at Microsoft, who—among other roles—led the back-end of its Windows Live platform, but “retired” three years ago, shortly before a major reorganization of Microsoft’s online operations. He’s worked since as a professor at Pepperdine’s business school.
One reader of ours cites this article and says that “Yahoo will finally stop pretending to be an independent company and take up its new role as the search arm of Microsoft. Not being totally merged so as to escape the monopolies commission…” █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, Ubuntu at 9:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Photo by Simon Law
Summary: Canonical’s chief technology officer talks about the problem with Microsoft controlling Mono
IN a new interview with Canonical’s CTO, Matt Zimmerman, he says “Free software” rather than “Open Source”, which is a good sign [1, 2]. For example:
UT: What are the targets and the plans of Ubuntu project in five years?
MZ: [Matt Zimmerman] Ubuntu is a vehicle for the expression of free software in people’s lives, so to some extent, the goals of Ubuntu are the goals of free software.
I think that free software must synthesize people’s experience of the web and the desktop. The divide between these two technological realms is limiting free software innovation by fragmenting the ecosystem. Along the way, we will need to resolve questions of freedom and autonomy on the web, and enable the community to embrace the web in ways which have not been possible yet.
The interview as a whole is very good, including the part where he talks about Mono and explains why it is further down in the list of priorities. The Source has already summarised the key points raised by Zimmerman:
There are risks in choosing the .NET platform to develop free software. And I am pleased that Mr. Zimmerman realizes that is exactly what Mono is: the .NET platform (albeit a gimped and tail-lights chasing stepchild implementation).
I also greatly appreciate Mr. Zimmerman’s points:
* Microsoft is in “ultimate control” (despite Team Apologista’s desperate protestations)
* Microsoft has multiple ways to wield .NET offensively
* It would be logical for them to do so
* they have acted similarly in the past
* they have said they would act similarly the future.
As the FSF has already stated quite formally, Mono or C# should not be treated as frameworks of choice. It’s nothing to do with “hate”; it’s simply a logical consideration. █
“[...] we know that Microsoft is getting patents on some features of C#. So I think it’s dangerous to use C#, and it may be dangerous to use Mono.”
–Richard Stallman, 2006
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04.17.10
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, Ubuntu at 4:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Photo by pterjan
Summary: A bizarre decision is made just weeks before the final release of Ubuntu 10.04 because the latest version of an F-Spot (Mono) competitor is removed and Banshee (Mono) gains integration with Ubuntu One
Steven Rosenberg has just published a rave (finally!) about Ubuntu 10.04. He particularly likes gThumb, which can help remove Mono from Ubuntu.
From the opening paragraph of Rosenberg’s new post:
I’ve been writing about such cockle-warming subjects as how Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx beta 2 and its 2.6.32 kernel handles such things as turning off kernel mode setting for Intel video that can’t deal with said mode-setting, as well as the ever-moving buttons on application windows, and how the new gthumb is the best damn Linux/Unix photo-editing program for journalists.
Well, guess what? On the very same day (the 15th) we learn that “gThumb 2.11.x [is] Removed From Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx” and as WebUpd8 put it the other day:
This is a big hit to gThumb which adds a lot of amazing features in the latest 2.11.x series, such as Flickr and Picasaweb export support. Even more, the latest GIT build also includes a new extension to export photos to Facebook.
What was Canonical thinking? First they remove the GIMP despite opposition from most users and now they remove [the latest version of] gThumb, only to leave F-Spot (Mono) in tact as a primitive image editor that’s also a resource hog. It makes no sense. The Source shows another reason to reject Mono and in the comments it points out that “Team Apologista [Microsoft/Mono] choose[s] instead to ride the coattails of popular distros, often conflating distro success with Mono success!”
“Team Apologista [...] often conflating distro success with Mono success!”
–Jason, The SourceYes, the only reason Mono is actually used by some people is that Mono boosters whom we named before had plugged it into the distribution. It’s like lobbying. The very same people are still trying to push Banshee (Mono) into Ubuntu against users' will, despite the patent problems, and despite the issue of control.
Last month we wrote about Ubuntu One getting more Mono bindings for Banshee. Our reader Ryan wrote: “So Banshee brings in the offending bindings for Ubuntu One?”
Well, based on this new article from Linux Magazine, this Mono infiltration takes a step further as “Banshee 1.6 Integrates with Ubuntu One Music Store” now. █
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04.15.10
Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Ubuntu at 9:35 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2009 screenshot
Summary: Microsoft and Novell are omnipresent on the panels at the Linux Collaboration Summit; Microsoft’s MVP Jason Hiner spreads Ubuntu disinformation again, through Tech Republic and ZDNet
LAST YEAR we showed that the Linux Foundation was unnecessarily stuffed by Novell staff, who obviously act as apologists for Microsoft and even put Microsoft code inside Linux [1, 2, 3]. They occasionally cause damage at Linux Foundation events.
Based on this article, Microsoft and Novell are on the panel/s again. The Microsoft presence takes the form of someone who pretends to have left Microsoft (but continues to serve Microsoft’s agenda under a separate embodiment). Novell is not exactly loved in the GNU/Linux community, based on simple observations. Earlier today we cited an article about Novell's Pinta (developed by a Novell employee using Mono). Check out the resentment in comments at Linux Today.
“Novell is not exactly loved in the GNU/Linux community, based on simple observations.”Now, let’s clarify something. This is a polite and factual observation. The message ought to be addressed here, not its messenger. We are well aware that everyone is naturally dismissing people who are critical or skeptical* (who are in turn being described as “negative”, “poisonous”, or “bad guys” [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]).
Look no further than the latest argument between Sam Varghese and Caitlyn Martin. Both of them are being critical and slinging shots; neither is entirely innocent, but both can be described as “negative” here. It makes neither of them wrong, just a tad abrasive perhaps (it is a tenuous debate).
A few days ago we deliberately avoided linking to a piece from a Microsoft booster called Jason Hiner. He is a Microsoft MVP who routinely attacks GNU/Linux. He has done this for several years and he plays the 'Linux curious' card in order to bash the platform. Hiner’s latest post about GNU/Linux may seem like flattery on the surface, but it’s utter junk therein. Here is a response titled “Dear Tech Republic, it’s called FOSS and that’s just how it’s done”
Hiner’s whole list looks like it was derived from “Producing Open Source Software” (Fogel), yet the article reads as if this is something in OSes that only Canonical has figured out. In fact, what he describes is part of the whole reason Red Hat Linux became Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Don’t think for a minute Canonical didn’t notice and learn from that, too.
The author later added (in response to Bob Sutor from IBM): “That article is revisionist, uninformed, and narrow-thinking, so I wrote — but I doubt ZDNet will repub.”
“Have you posted a comment to this effect on the article, and contacted the author directly? I find this very valuable in educating journalists.”
–Adam WilliamsonYes, Hiner and Tech Republic are also connected to ZDNet (the latest Hiner piece was published in ZDNet too), which is responsible for a lot of the FUD against GNU/Linux. It repeats the lies over and over again, even in the "Open Source" blog. Earlier today we found ZDNet’s “Open Source” blog making the claim that desktop GNU/Linux requires the command line, whereas Windows no longer needs DOS. The claim was made by Dana, who does not even use GNU/Linux. Last week he repeated the fallacious claim that GNU/Linux has less than 1% of the desktop market. For shame, Dana, for shame.
Anyway, two comments were posted in response to the response to Hiner’s piece. Both are from Fedora/Red Hat developers. The first is Rahul Sundaram’s, who wrote: “I do have to point out that GNOME learned six months release cycle from Red Hat Linux as I noted in http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora…”
Another Red Hat employee, Adam Williamson, wrote the second comment which says: “Have you posted a comment to this effect on the article, and contacted the author directly? I find this very valuable in educating journalists. :)”
But Hiner is not a journalist; he is a Microsoft enthusiast with a blog (or rag/tabloid known as ZDNet). █
____
* Netscape’s former chairman, James H. Clark, once said: “Microsoft is, I think, fundamentally an evil company.” Does that make his an “irrational zealot”?
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, Red Hat, Ubuntu at 11:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Now [Novell is] little better than a branch of Microsoft”
–LinuxToday Managing Editor
Summary: Putting a ‘Microsoft tax’ on proprietary GNU/Linux is still a priority which Novell perceives as sufficiently worth pursuing, even if it means daemonising Red Hat for sympathy
A FEW MONTHS back we saw Novell masquerading as Red Hat, only to receive/invoke letters of complaint in Spain [1, 2, 3] and then whine about it. Shades of TurboHercules [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11].
Novell’s PR people are now complaining about presentation/preservation of facts, which is rather hilarious because Novell is a chronic, pathological liar*, as it has proven repeatedly over the past few years (Novell rivals SCO and Microsoft for the “liar” status). The post says:
Since November 2008, Novell has offered the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support Program to customers who want to migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from an existing Linux distribution, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
[...]
Novell is deeply committed to the open source community, leading major projects including openSUSE and the Mono project, and providing major contributions to other open source initiatives. We are consistently one of the top corporate contributors to the Linux kernel.
Mono project? That’s more of a curse, not a contribution. The same goes for Moonlight. These projects are for Microsoft, not for GNU/Linux. Novell is selling out to Microsoft, promoting Microsoft APIs, and even puts Microsoft code inside the kernel (after it’s found to be a GPL violation [1, 2, 3]).
“We have shown based on statistics that Novell’s Linux contributions over the years dropped very sharply.”Novell is decreasingly contributing to Linux, to the point where Novell does not contribute to the kernel all that much anymore. We have shown based on statistics that Novell’s Linux contributions over the years dropped very sharply. The same cannot be said about Mono and related projects, which merely benefit the paymaster from Redmond.
On the positive side, Novell is up for sale. Novell not only curses Red Hat [1, 2]; It also attacks Ubuntu for example. █
____
* For instance, Novell was lying about Studio being a first of its kind, which annoyed rPath.
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Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Ubuntu at 11:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: New positive review of the GIMP and a look at Novell’s Microsoft-centric substitute which its employee is promoting
“GIMP Is No Lame Photo Tool,” says this headline from ECT, which insists that “its tool set has all the bells and whistles I used in the Adobe product.” If it’s really that powerful (which it is, based on my decade of using it), then how come Canonical removes it and keeps F-Spot (Mono) in Ubuntu by default [1, 2]? Here is what the article says:
GIMP is one of the most able-bodied open source photo manipulation apps in the world, and its feature set rivals those of many proprietary — and often downright expensive — offerings. Its features will fix flaws in photos as well as enable the user to artistically manipulate images in a multitude of formats. However, most photo editors this advanced do require a bit of a learning curve, and GIMP is no exception.
The Linux world is filled with numerous capable packages for just about every computing category. Graphics manipulation applications are no exception. In any list of able-bodied graphics candidates, GIMP 2.6 should be one of the top three contenders.
[...]
When I left Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows for the Linux platform, I desperately needed an inexpensive replacement for Photoshop. One of the first photo editing apps I encountered was GIMP. It is available in most Linux package management systems. Its tool set has all the bells and whistles I used in the Adobe product.
GIMP became my de facto benchmark measurement for similar photoshopping apps. The fact that GIMP runs on both of my Linux workhorse distros — Ubuntu and Puppy Linux — made using it a real bargain.
The GIMP really belongs inside Ubuntu. The majority of Ubuntu users who voted in a poll said that they wanted the GIMP restored, but Ubuntu is not a democracy. What instead we keep finding in the news (even yesterday) is Novell’s attempt popularise .NET substitutes to the GIMP [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. █
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